Africanus

Published by the Department of Development Administration, University of South Africa.Articles on development problems with special reference to the Third World and southern Africa as well as politics and policy concerning intergroup relations.

Latest Articles

This study was conceptualised in order to assess the strategies used to incorporate the
homeland of KaNgwane into Mpumalanga province after the cessation of apartheid in
1994. The specific objective of the study was to investigate the compliance of records and
archives with the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act (Act No 43 of
1996), during the incorporation of the homeland of KaNgwane into Mpumalanga. The study
adopted a qualitative methodology through document analysis, interviews and observations.
The key findings revealed that the archives of the former homeland of Kangwane were
not aligned with the requirements of the National Archives and Records Service of South
Africa Act (Act No.43 of 1996). Institutions seem to lack experience when it comes to the
challenges of storing records and implementing arrangement and control systems. The
frequent lack of a records management policy and few to no staff with record-keeping and
archival backgrounds was also a concern. A shortage of space to store records safely was
also one of the major issues that the study uncovered. There appears to be no concerted
effort to retain important historical records. Many records are stored in several different
locations in government buildings. I conclude that archives play an essential role to the
nation as the institutional memory.

This article examines coffee marketing in Zimbabwe amidst debates on the contribution of
agricultural commodities to sustainable economic development in Africa. It uses the concept
of linkages and declining terms-of-trade to reconnoitre these debates. The article argues
that between 1980 and 2015, coffee production, and in particular marketing, faced a myriad
of internal and external challenges, which limited its overall contribution to the economy.
Among these constraints was the lack of a significant domestic market, which tied the sector
to external markets. The externality of the coffee industry weakened the linkages between
the sector and the rest of the local economy, thereby turning the sector into an enclave
of external economies. This exposed the industry to risks on the international market—
including price volatility. The setup perpetuated the unfair global division of labour, where
Zimbabwe suffered declining terms-of-trade as an exporter of raw coffee and an importer
of manufactured products. This article, therefore, contends that the externality of the coffee
industry in Zimbabwe plunged the country into an exploitative dependency relationship
with consuming countries. Failure to export processed coffee was mainly a function of the
restrictive tariff policies in the consuming countries.

Countries with positive per capita real growth are characterised by positive national
savings—including government savings, increases in government investment, and strong
increases in private savings and investment. On the other hand, countries with negative per
capita real growth tend to be characterised by declines in savings and investment. During
the past several decades, Kenya’s emerging economy has undergone many changes and
economic performance has been epitomised by periods of stability/instability, decline, or
unevenness. This article discusses and analyses the record of economic performance and
public finance in Kenya during the period 1960‒2010, as well as policies and other factors
that have influenced that record in this emerging economy.

South Africa is a water-stressed country, receiving an average rainfall of 450mm per annum,
which is significantly less than the global average of 860mm per annum. The livelihood
of the rural population depends heavily on the availability of water. While the dynamics of
water access and use by urban households is well documented, little is known about the
dynamics in rural households. This article describes how rural households obtain water;
and in turn, quantifies how households allocate water among competing household uses;
including cooking and cleaning, home garden irrigation, and supporting livestock. A case study
involving 30 households comprising 180 individuals used a mixed-methods approach
and found that households allocate more water for productive use (60%) than they do for
domestic purposes (40%). The findings suggest and describe certain rural nuances on how
local peoples access and use water to support food security. This research emphasises the
need for water services to be planned to support multiple water uses in rural households and
further suggests that interventions to increase water storage and access to untreated water,
especially in homesteads would yield significant results.